Editor’s Note: Ted Daywalt is president and CEO of VetJobs, a military job board. He served on active duty in the Navy as a line and intelligence officer and retired as a captain after 28 years. He later served in private industry as a plant manager and as an executive in the steel, electric utility, importing, chemical and recruiting industries. “Voters In America: Vets Wanted?” is the first part of In America's documentary series on American voters. J.R. Martinez narrates the documentary re-airing May 19th at 8 p.m. ET Saturday on CNN.

By Ted Daywalt, Special to CNN

(CNN) - The employment challenges facing veterans today are vastly different from those facing the post-Vietnam era soldiers.

In the 1970s, when I served, veterans would not mention they had been in the military, much less Vietnam. Discrimination against these veterans was immense, and in 1974, Congress passed the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act to prohibit the discrimination and provide more opportunities.

Today, the perspective on hiring veterans has improved, but National Guard and Army Reserve veterans still face serious employment challenges when they return home.

Now, we are more reliant than ever on the National Guard and reserves to protect our country.

(CNN) – After Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. first gained wide public recognition in the mid-1950s, he made a special request to evangelist Billy Graham.

King was poised to join Graham on one of his barnstorming crusades, but would do so only on one condition. He asked Graham to publicly speak out against segregation, a request Graham declined, says San Diego State University historian Edward Blum.

After President Obama this week became the first sitting president to endorse same-sex marriage, black clergy and churchgoers could face a similar question to the one that fractured King and Graham: Should my ideas about personal holiness trump my notion of justice?

About In America

What defines you? Maybe it’s the shade of your skin, the place you grew up, the accent in your words, the make up of your family, the gender you were born with, the intimate relationships you chose to have or your generation? As the American identity changes we will be there to report it. In America is a venue for creative and timely sharing of news that explores who we are. Reach us at inamerica@cnn.com.